Testing blood and other liquids is standard practice in assessment of health and wellbeing. The systems and methods for drawing blood from a patient are well understood and generally result in blood being drawn and stored in either a syringe or an evacuated glass vial commonly called a specimen vial.
A number of methods exist for transferring blood back and forth between a syringe and a vial. Most commonly, healthcare workers simply penetrate the rubber vial cap with a syringe that has a needle affixed to the standard Luer lock connector thereon. A major identified disadvantage of such a method is the high risk of the healthcare worker accidentally pricking themselves with the needle and potentially contracting disease from such needle prick.
Several safer blood transfer guides have been suggested that reduce the probability of needle pricks, however a common difficulty encountered with these transfer devices is the need to sterilize such devices. U.S. Pat. No. 5,360,423 is one such example of a blood transfer device wherein a Luer lock and needle assembly is permanently mounted on a guide collar. A syringe can be connected to the Luer lock while a vial is pushed into the collar assembly such that the needle penetrates the rubber cap affixed to the vial. Such assembly must be kept sterile until ready to use, and once used must be disposed of.
A further disadvantage of fixed-needle blood transfer devices is the severe limitation this places on labs that require different needle sizes to be used. With a fixed needle in place a different blood transfer device must be used for each individual desired needle size.
There exists a need for a blood transfer device that can accept a variety of syringes with a variety of needle sizes already attached thereon. There further exists a need for a blood transfer device that does not require sterilization